Is “Karl Rhoads” the source of voting record information used by Calvin Say’s attorney that was questionably obtained?

by Larry Geller, Disappeared News, February 22, 2015

Update: The documents for the House Special Committee hearing MC1003 are not on the status page given below. Turns out they are here. How would anyone know? The page does not even have an RSS feed so that changes can be tracked.

The state House investigation of a challenge to former speaker Calvin Say’s right to hold his seat in Hawaii’s House of Representatives has taken a new twist. Petitioners have questioned whether the committee chair is the source of certain voter record information that was used by Say’s attorney, and whether that information was used legally.

The status page for MC1003, regarding the petition filed by voters in Calvin Say’s district has not been updated with the documents submitted by the parties. But attorney Lance Collins has made available his letter addressed to Speaker Joseph Souki and chair of the Special Committee, Karl Rhoads, that was sent to them late Friday, February 20, 2015. The letter questions whether Rhoads was the source of voting record information provided to Say’s attorneys that was allegedly not legally distributable.

The information in question was included in Exhibits 1 and 2 to Mr. Say's February 11, 2015 submission to the Special Committee. According to Collins, the records

appear to have been obtained from the account of a “Karl Rhoads” on hivoter.com on February 5, 2015.

The letter to Souki and Rhoads asks if that “Karl Rhoads” is the same as Karl Rhoads who was appointed by Souki to head the special committee.

The appointment was announced only one day earlier, on February 4, 2015.

Collins indicates that the information disclosed goes beyond “full name, district/precinct designation, and voter status” which is allowed for “election purposes.”

HRS 11-14 and 11-97 limit the use of voter registration information to “election purposes” and limit what information is publicly available and what information is confidential. As stated in HRS 11-14(d), “Unless authorized under section 11-97, it shall be unlawful for any person to use,print, publish, or distribute any voter registration information acquired directly or indirectly from the voter registration affidavits or any list prepared therefrom... Any person who violates this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Collins attached to his letter two examples of information obtained over the name “Karl Rhoads.” He also asked that the committee redact confidential information from documents open to public view.

---30---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike license

  *   *   *   *   *

Rhoads Admits Helping Say's Defense Team, Police Report Filed

HNN: After the hearing, two women involved in the petition filed a police report against Rhoads for allegedly disclosing confidential voter information, including their address and phone number. During the committee's investigation, Rhoads discovered that the women no longer lived in the district, disqualifying them from taking part in the petition. Rhoads shared the voter registration information with Say's attorneys who then submitted the data to the committee as publicly-accessible evidence.

"Putting enough personal information for somebody so that someone can go to their house or go open up a line of credit in their name is totally inappropriate. It doesn't serve any legitimate purpose whatsoever," said Collins.

Rhoads denied that confidential information had been revealed.

"A complete red herring. The petitioners withheld information that was pertinent to the investigation, withheld it from the committee, and withheld it from Speaker Emeritus Say who had every right to the information," said Rhoads.  (And so Rhoads justifies ex parte communications with one side in a legal proceeding.)

SA: Collins added that he and several of his clients would head straight to Hono­lulu Police Department headquarters

read ... Arrest Rhoads

  *   *   *   *   *

Pathetic Excuses: Rhoads Tries to Justify Ex-Part Communications With Say's Lawyer

SA: The group challenging Hawaii Rep. Calvin Say's qualifications is asking why the chairman of the special House committee investigating the matter shared evidence with Say's attorneys.

Rep. Karl Rhoads leads the panel that's investigating voters' claims that Say doesn't live in the district he represents. Using a voter registration database, Rhoads obtained information showing two of the six voters challenging Say's residency don't live in the district Say represents.

Rhoads said he shared that information with Say, and Say's attorneys submitted the information to Rhoads' committee as evidence discrediting the voters' claims.

That made Lance Collins, the attorney representing the voters, question whether Rhoads is properly handling the investigation.

"There's also a question about whether the committee is actually investigating, or if this is more along the lines of some kind of cover-up or whitewash or checking a box off to make sure it's done," Collins said.

Rhoads said the House hearings on Say's credentials are quasi-judicial, so he was following the principles of judicial proceedings.

"In a criminal proceeding, if the prosecution has information that exonerates the defendant, they have to provide it," Rhoads said. "And in that sense, we're trying to stick with the principle of fairness. He (Say) had a right to know that these two of the six petitioners did not qualify to challenge him under the rules Speaker (Joe) Souki put forward."

But Rhoads is in a position more similar to a judge, Collins said.

"If a judge comes into evidence that may be important to one side or the other ... they're supposed to give it to all parties, not just one party, and not to do it in secret," he said.

Collins said the two voters lived in Say's district since the complaint was initially filed, but they later moved. He questioned why the voters' full names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and birthdates were not redacted in Say's submissions to the Legislature, which later became public documents. Collins said in a letter to the House speaker that releasing that information qualifies as a misdemeanor....

read ... Rhoads does opposition research on the Plaintiffs